Fishing lures utilizing bait fish are well known. It is also well known to utilize a bait fish holder that includes one or more lateral projections that cause a bait fish to rotate or oscillate when pulled through water during trolling. The following patents disclose bait fish holders that include such lateral projections.
Baron, U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,895; Bell, U.S. Pat. No. 2,518,593; Egles, U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,031; Faulkner, U.S. Pat. No. 6,658,785; Holmberg, U.S. Pat. No. 2,791,059; Horton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,232; Kress, U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,442; Rolfsness, U.S. Pat. No. 3,197,911; Urbano. U.S. Pat. No. 7,257,923; and Wakeman, U.S. Pat. No. 339,952.
The bait fish holders disclosed in each of these patents are primarily attached to the bait fish by a device that is external to the bait fish, such as a cap, cone, clamp, or cage. Therefore, the rotational force due to movement of the bait fish holder through the water is externally imparted to the fish.
The disadvantage that results from the external attachment of the bait fish holder to the bait fish is that the bait fish is presented to game fish in a manner that is less than ideal because the rotation of the bait fish is not natural and the external device itself obscures the bait fish and gives it an unnatural appearance.
The present invention, disclosed in detail below, provides a solution to the disadvantages of the prior art.